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today's devotional - so poignant to r.e.m. fans!l "Buy the sky and sell the sky, lift your arms up to the sky, and ask the sky, and ask the sky: don't fall on me. Don't fall on me."

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http://moveon.org/pac/primary/release.html

Friday, June 27—No candidate won a majority in this week’s first-ever Democratic online presidential primary, therefore MoveOn.org PAC will not make an endorsement at this time. Howard Dean received the highest vote total with 43.87% of the vote (139,360 votes); followed by Dennis Kucinich with 23.93% (76,000 votes); and John Kerry with 15.73% (49,973 votes).

The rest of the field was in single digits: John Edwards, 3.19% (10,146 votes); Richard Gephardt, 2.44% (7,755 votes); Bob Graham, 2.24% (7,113 votes); Carol Moseley Braun, 2.21% (7,021 votes); Joe Lieberman, 1.92% (6,095 votes); and Al Sharpton, 0.53% (1,677 votes).

...317,639 votes were cast in the “primary,” more than the 2000 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, the Iowa and South Carolina Democratic presidential caucuses, combined; 54,370 voters pledged to volunteer for their preferred Democratic contender; 77,192 voters authorized MoveOn.org PAC to give their e-mail addresses to the candidate of their choice; and 49,132 voters pledged to contribute money to their candidate, for a total estimated at more than $1.75 million ($35 average contribution).

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,6667000^1702,00.html

Los Angeles: ABOUT 1,000 demonstrators shouting for US President George W Bush's impeachment gathered outside a hotel here where the president was helping raise $3,600,000.00 for his re-election campaign.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/28/national/28PROT.html?th

SAN FRANCISCO, June 27 — The [City of San Francisco] district attorney's office today dismissed infractions against 407 people arrested in March in antiwar protests here and also indicated that it would not pursue charges against all but about 20 of the others who were arrested... The 20 cases not dropped involved acts of violence or vandalism, which are misdemeanors, rather than infractions.

...The district attorney, Terence Hallinan... realize[d] that the arrested protesters were prepared to fight every effort to prosecute them, even for relatively minor infractions, such as jaywalking.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/06/27/MN272875.DTL&type=printable

In a symbolic gesture of gratitude to the U.S. Supreme Court for striking down a Texas law that banned gay sex acts, San Francisco gay leaders took down the huge rainbow flag that permanently graces the corner of Market and Castro streets and hoisted the Stars and Stripes.

...Thursday's ruling means the remaining sodomy laws in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia are no longer valid.

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http://www.advocate.com/html/stories/893/893_supremes.asp

The Supreme Court’s 6–3 split [on the Lawrence v. Texas] demonstrates a cultural shift from which there will be no retreat. Only one of the six, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor... argued that sodomy laws applied to both gays and straights should be legal. That still leaves a solid five-vote majority siding with Americans’ right to privacy in their bedrooms.

...Just 43 years ago every state had sodomy laws and that in the 13 states that until today had such laws, they are inevitably used to harass and discriminate against sexual minorities. How can a woman be a good mother, conservative judges have argued as recently as this year, when her lesbian status makes her inclined to violate state law? That argument is now dead and gone. It’s unconstitutional to ask what Mom does in the bedroom.

...What’s more, Lawrence bolsters privacy rights for all Americans. Remember that Roe v. Wade, which established abortion rights, also rests on the privacy rights that decided Lawrence.

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satire from april 2, 1997. in memoriam.

http://www.theonion.com/onion3112/stromchange.html

WASHINGTON, DC—Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC), widely known for his conservative views, retooled his hard-line stance against homosexuality after a casual one-nighter last weekend with a D.C.-area man identified only as "Stan."

..."I was mistaken when I said that homosexuals were perverts bent on the destruction of the family and the nation through their wicked, deviant sex acts," a visibly glowing Thurmond told reporters. "Stan respected me for who I was, not just for my body. He was a sharp dresser and a charming conversationalist, not to mention a considerate and attentive lover... In conclusion, I would just like to say to all the gays and lesbians, against whom I have spoken out so vociferously throughout my career, I am sorry," Thurmond said, shedding tears. "If an old man like me, set in his ways, can in his twilight years open his heart to a new understanding, not only of homosexuality, but also of himself, then perhaps it is not too late for all of us to see the truth. I hope you can find it within yourselves to forgive me." The senator then died.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39643-2003Jun27.html?nav=hptop_ts

Strom Thurmondd, the South Carolina Republican who became the longest-serving U.S. senator in history and the oldest person to serve in Congress, died last night in his home town of Edgefield, S.C. He was 100.

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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=O4TEKBBWO433ICRBAE0CFEY?type=politicsNews&storyID=3002284

On Friday, [White House Resident] Bush said of Thurmond, "He was also a friend... He will be missed."

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http://www.counterpunch.org/kauffman06252003.html

There are two Americas: the televised America, known and hated by the world, and the rest of us. The former is a factitious creation whose strange gods include "Sex and the City," accentless TV anchorpeople, Dick Cheney, Rosie O'Donnell, "Friends," and the Department of Homeland Security. It is real enough--cross it and you'll learn more than you want to know about weapons of mass destruction--but it has no heart, no soul, no connection to the thousand and one real Americas that produced Zora Neale Hurston and Jack Kerouac and Saint Dorothy Day and the Mighty Casey who has struck out.

I am of the other America, the unseen America, the America undreamt of by the foreigners who hate my country without knowing a single thing about it. Ours is a land of volunteer fire departments, of baseball, of wizened spinsters who instead of sitting around whining about their goddamned osteoporosis write and self-publish books on the histories of their little towns, of the farmwives and grain merchants and parsons and drunkards who made their places live.

We are the America that suffers in wartime.

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http://www.unknownnews.net/a0627m4m627.html

Firstly, a new military information "awareness" program "Talon," to gather citizen "tips" about suspicious behavior and plop them into a database. To go along with "Eagle Eyes," citizen spy promotion program. "Armed with this information, anyone can recognize elements of potential terror planning when they see it." Sounds like secret spy glasses - "Eagle Eyes" - now you too can see terrorists!

...But just what are these "suspicious behaviors" to be on the lookout for? Well, let's see, "note taking," binocular using, fence shaking, asking for directions, and, oh yes, if you are "approached at a gas station . . . and asked about the workings of the base's network firewall." Gee willikers! Wouldn't you know! That happened to me just last week! I wish I had read this earlier so I would have known not to give them all those secret passwords, gosh darn it.

Oh yes, and be on the lookout for "people in military uniforms (who don't look right)." ... interesting parenthetical afterthought, that. This is rather a classic. I would take it for a parody, if it weren't so doggoned "earnest." That's what makes it sad, I guess

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http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59365,00.html

To track domestic terrorist threats against the military, the Pentagon is creating a new database that will contain "raw, non-validated" reports of "anomalous activities" within the United States... Talon was described in a May 2 memorandum to top Pentagon brass from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. In the memo, Wolfowitz directed the heads of military departments and agencies to begin producing Talon reports immediately.

...The Talon antiterrorism database was first reported by Kitetoa, a French security site. An anonymous source, who said he obtained a copy of the Talon memo from a website operated by the Department of Defense, provided Wired News with access to a copy marked "official use only." Ken McLellan, a Department of Defense spokesman, said the document "certainly looked authentic."

...It was not clear from the memo whether Talon reports would become part of the Pentagon's controversial Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA) program, or whether the data would be shared with other government agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security. According to the Wolfowitz memo, reports of potential threats are to be sent to the DoD's Counterintelligence Field Activity office using "automated information systems or via e-mail attachment."

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http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/text/d510567p.txt

Department of Defense DIRECTIVE NUMBER 5105.67 February 19, 2002... SUBJECT: Department of Defense Counterintelligence Field Activity (DoD CIFA)... 1. PURPOSE Pursuant to the authority vested in the Secretary of Defense by reference (a), this Directive establishes the Department of Defense Counterintelligence Field Activity... 3. MISSION The mission of the DoD CIFA is to develop and manage DoD Counterintelligence (CI) programs and functions that support the protection of the Department, including CI support to protect DoD personnel, resources, critical information, research and development programs, technology, critical infrastructure, economic security, and U.S. interests, against foreign influence and manipulation, as well as to detect and neutralize espionage against the Department.

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a word from the air force

http://www.dtic.mil/afosi/eagle/index.html

The Eagle Eyes program is an anti-terrorism initiative that enlists the eyes and ears of Air Force members and citizens in the war on terror... The program provides a network of local, 24-hour phone numbers to call whenever a suspicious activity is observed. You and your family are encouraged to learn the categories of suspicious behavior and stay attuned to your surroundings.

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enjoy several approved versions of the eagle eyes ["watch.report.protect." TM] logo at this address.

http://www.dtic.mil/afosi/eagle/logos.html

The "Eagle Eyes" logo consists of four distinct graphic elements, each representing an important aspect of the program... The "Eye" represents the awareness and vigilance the program generates... The "Badge" represents the law-enforcement aspect of the program... The "Flag" represents... this program's importance to the nation... The "Eagle" represents the U.S. Air Force, to whom the entire program belongs.

The logo may appear in the following color schemes: black and white; blue and white; and red, white, and blue. No other colors are authorized. When "red, white, and blue" is used, red is to be used on the top elements of the symbol – e.g., the components that look like a waving flag – and blue is to be used on the circle, triangle, and words components. These colors may not be switched. [under penalty of law -mrs.h]

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the ignorance of the law is no excuse [get it?]

http://www.unknownnews.net/0626-2.html

Kansas City Star, June 25, 2003: Cook Composites and Polymers Co. has agreed to pay a $6,000 fine to settle charges that it violated Commerce Department regulations aimed at countering the Arab boycott of Israel. The department's Bureau of Industry and Security had charged that, in response to a request from a customer in Bahrain, Cook had furnished information stating that the goods being shipped were not of Israeli origin and did not contain Israeli materials. The bureau also charged that Cook had failed to report its receipt of the request.

...The antiboycott provisions bar U.S. companies from providing information about their business relationships with Israel. They also require that receipt of boycott requests be reported to the Bureau of Industry and Security.

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bureau of industry and security? i had no idea!

http://www.bxa.doc.gov/Forms/EELeadsNTips.html

This form should only be used for the purpose of submitting a lead or a tip on a possible export control or boycott related violation of the Export Administration Regulations. Because we want to protect you and any information you may wish to provide us, no email response will be sent to you as a result of submitting this form. In most cases you will be contacted by telephone by one of our special agents.

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but is it enforceable? ask the beets!

http://www.bxa.doc.gov/Enforcement/beets.htm

From its inception in 1991, the "Business Executives' Enforcement Team" (BEET) has become the forum for industry executives who need to stay current with the latest in practical, "hands-on" export enforcement topics... That's why BIS's Office of Export Enforcement, formed the BEET, and why more than 3,000 business executives have participated in this program, taking advantage of the unique opportunity to present their concerns and communicate directly with senior U.S. enforcement officials to learn about new and ongoing enforcement initiatives.

...As Export Enforcement reshapes its mission to reflect enhanced controls on weapons technologies -- chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, and the means to deliver them, interaction with senior corporate officers of industries affected by these controls is especially welcomed. [note punctuation errors on this government website. beets don't do technical writing. - mrs.h]

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28394-2003Jun24.html

The House, after a contentious debate, approved legislation providing $29,400,000,000.00 for the newly created Homeland Security Department in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1... Last night's vote [was] 425 to 2.

...The legislation... appropriates $1,000,000,000.00 more than President Bush requested... Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), who chairs the Select Committee on Homeland Security, said the funding would amount to $250 in federal spending per taxpayer. "Nothing we do is more important," Cox said.

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see this site for photos if you still don't get it. by the way "uxo" = un-exploded ordinance [your tax dollars at work in kirkuk, iraq].

http://www.magclearsmines.org/magtest/deadlygame/all.htm

The vast majority of casualties are from children tampering with the UXO that litters their playgrounds . They do this for fun and they don't realise the dangers until it's too late. Children can be seen prising open shells to get at the gunpowder which they then set fire to; they like the big flashes. They build fires in the former military trenches, throw in their own stockpiles of UXO and run away. Some of them get away - too many are getting killed.

...Responding to this widespread emergency, MAG [Mines Advisory Group] sent three teams of technicians from their bases in northern Iraq to the city of Kirkuk... At the time of writing MAG, a world-leader in its field, is still the ONLY mine action organisation clearing mines in Iraq.

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http://www.krollworldwide.com/news/releases/news_detail.asp?reqid=425373

LONDON, June 24, 2003 –‘Iraq: Risk Scenarios' says that post-war Iraq is most likely to face one of two scenarios in the next six months: A ‘Wobbly Landing' where the process of building a democratic state is difficult; US forces are heavily involved, and economic recovery develops at an uncertain pace. There is an equal chance there may be an ‘Iraqi Revolt' where efforts to build a representative government fail; crime and violence grow; American troop withdrawal and stabilization become a priority, bringing with it high risks and uncertainties for investors. There is little chance that Iraq will rapidly move towards full stability.

...Dominic Simpson, Head of the Kroll Middle East Practice has led the project with a group of internationally renowned Iraq experts working on the various scenarios. The Iraq Risk Scenario, which comprises a 90-page written risk assessment, is available at a cost of $5,800, which includes a personal briefing from Kroll specialists, in either London or New York. The Kroll Middle East Practice continues to publish the Middle East Risk Monitor (MERM), which is available free of charge and e-mailed to clients on a weekly basis. To view the MERM, please click: http://www.krollworldwide.com/library/merm/MERM_06_05_03.pdf

About Kroll: Kroll Inc. (NASDAQ: KROL), the World's leading independent risk consulting company, provides a broad range of investigative, intelligence, financial, security, and technology services to help clients reduce risks, solve problems and capitalize on opportunities.

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changing stock prices for the above risk-management firm

http://www.krollworldwide.com/investor/chart/historical_quotes.asp

Date requested: 06/27/2001 Security: KROL (Common Stock) Actual Price 8.69

Date requested: 06/27/2002 Security: KROL (Common Stock) Actual Price 20.5

Date requested: 06/27/2003 Security: KROL (Common Stock) Actual Price 27.03

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A33669-2003Jun25?language=printer

Nearly a decade after Republicans launched a campaign to oust Democrats from top lobbying jobs in Washington, sometimes through intimidation and private threats, they are seizing a significant number of the most influential positions at trade associations and corporate government affairs offices -- and reaping big financial rewards.

Partly because of the "K Street Project" -- and partly because of GOP control of Congress and the presidency -- virtually every major company or trade association looking for new top-level representation is hiring or seeking to hire a prominent Republican politician or staffer, according to Republicans and Democrats tracking the situation... A Republican National Committee official recently told a group of GOP lobbyists that 33 of 36 top-level Washington positions he is monitoring went to Republicans, according to someone who attended the meeting.

The trend could deeply influence Washington politics, policy and fundraising for years... Hollywood's two premier trade associations -- the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America -- are strongly considering replacing their current leaders, who are liberals, with prominent Republicans.

...Former representative Tony Coehlo (D-Calif.), who aggressively targeted business in Congress in the 1980s, said Republicans are "going too far" by pressuring companies to hire Republicans only and threatening retribution to those who disobey... The most famous and ominous warning came in 1998 from then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.). The two leaders held up a vote on intellectual property legislation in protest of the Electronics Industry Association's plan to hire a Democrat to run the group. The House ethics committee admonished DeLay for his tactics in the incident. It was a slap on the wrist by congressional ethics standards, and Republicans say that was a small price to pay for the fear it put in companies thinking about hiring a Democrat.

Late last year, Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael G. Oxley (R-Ohio) and his top aides pressured the Investment Company Institute, a consortium of mutual fund companies, to push aside Julie Domenick as its top lobbyist. Oxley's staff suggested to industry officials that a congressional probe of the mutual fund industry might ease up if ICI complied.

...Here's how [the K Street Project] typically works, according to congressional insiders: Several GOP leaders, including Senate Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum (Pa.), monitor openings on K Street with officials of the RNC and GOP lobbyists... This part of the process often involves a phone call to Nels Olsen, of Korn/Ferry International, the world's largest executive search firm. Olsen handles most of the blue-chip lobbying job openings in town... "A week hasn't gone by that I haven't talked to someone in the administration and Congress, telling them we want to put them on the list for a certain job," a prominent GOP lobbyist involved in the project said.

Once a candidate is picked for a job, Republicans sometimes get fellow GOP lawmakers or government officials to weigh in on behalf of the candidate. Typically, a GOP lobbyist is tapped to monitor each opening until it is filled. A RNC staffer keeps a running tally of which jobs go Republican, according to a GOP lobbyist involved in the effort.

...The lobbyists have played an instrumental role in expanding the party's fundraising base by advising clients to steer their money away from Democrats... Moreover, by placing Republicans in these high-paying jobs, a whole new class of wealthy donors has been created. Most high-level lobbying jobs pay at least $300,000 per year, and some lobbyists are pulling down two or three times that amount annually.

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from schlock'n'roll, a comic by ward sutton

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0326/sutton.php

"The new Bush tax plan, passed by Congress, rewards business owners by allowing them to deduct up to $100,000.00 for purchasing the most fuel-inefficient vehicles available: SUVs and Hummers over 6,000 lbs... Hummer owners: Don't forget to plaster your H2 with American flages to show us all how much you love this land of ours!"

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http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/defensewrapper.jsp?PID=1051-350&CID=1051-062603A

A consortium of mercenary groups has made the UN a deceptively simple proposal: give us $200,000,000.00, and we'll help bring an end to the war in the Congo.

Tribal militias are running rampant in the eastern part of the central African nation, slaughtering hundreds of villagers at a time. Since 1998, the violence there has claimed 3,300,000 lives. The world's response has been, to say the least, underwhelming... [The] unusual suggestion has come from the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), an association of private military companies... The companies say they'll employ for their rapid reaction force 475 to 1200 British-trained Gurkha fighters from Nepal -- guys with a seriously bad-ass reputation.

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http://www.ipoaonline.org/

The International Peace Operations Association (IPOA) is an association of Military Service Provider companies - companies who work or are interested in international peace operations around the world. This includes companies that do everything from mine clearance, to armed logistics, to emergency humanitarian services, to actual armed peacekeepers. The association is being founded to institute industry-wide standards and a code of conduct, maintain sound professional and military practices, educate the public and policy-makers on the industry's activities and potential, and ensure the humanitarian use of private peacekeeping services for the benefit of international peace and human security.

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http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0603/26koreas.html

More than 1 million North Koreans crowded Pyongyang's streets for anti-American rallies Wednesday, part of government commemorations marking the 53rd anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War... Led by senior communist party and state officials, Pyongyang citizens packed streets and plazas, "shaking with towering hatred and resentment against the U.S. imperialists," said North Korea's state-run KCNA news agency.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=926&ncid=959&e=15&u=/usnews/20030616/ts_usnews/gulagnation

http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/1056706669106830.xml

Baghdad, Iraq- American troops and helicopters scoured the desert yesterday for two U.S. soldiers who were apparently abducted from an observation post north of Baghdad... A day after a U.S. Marine was killed responding to an ambush on Americans, reports of attacks on U.S. troops appeared almost hourly - too frequent for military press officers to keep up with... The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera, however, aired statements yesterday from two previously unknown groups urging assaults on U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3025800.stm

By Tristana Moore, BBC correspondent in Basra: We left Baghdad several hours ago... The road stretches ahead of us - a long straight line - the desert lying on either side. The only sign of life is the odd Bedouin herding his camels... We pass a number of American military convoys all heading towards Baghdad... I glimpsed a dark shape lying in the middle of the road. The driver swerved to avoid it, braking sharply. As we passed I looked through window and caught sight of a body. Not the body of an animal, but the body of a child... A few metres away, a girl is crying, screaming.

...Her name is Sabrina, she is 13 years old. She is barefoot and wears a ragged dress. She has dark eyes and long, brown hair. She tells me how she saw her 11-year-old brother, Muhannad, had run up to an American military convoy trying to sell something to the soldiers, but was run over as he crossed the road. The Americans did not stop.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=1&u=/ap/20030628/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

The toll of American dead since the start of war topped the grim milestone of 200... The deaths bring to at least 63 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since major combat was declared over on May 1.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/06/26/international1254EDT0628.DTL

The U.N. terrorism committee has found no evidence linking Iraq to al-Qaida and did not investigate Bush administration claims of such ties, officials said Thursday... "Nothing has come to our notice that would indicate links between Iraq and al-Qaida," said Michael Chandler, the committee's chief investigator.

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http://billmon.org/archives/000281.html

Thu Jun 26 - WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Republican leader in the Senate said that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was not the main justification for the US-led invasion of Iraq. "I'm not sure that's the major reason we went to war," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told NBC television's Today Show.

January 10, 2003 - "I am absolutely convinced, based on the information that’s been given to me, that the weapon of mass destruction which can kill more people than an atomic bomb -- that is, biological weapons -- is in the hands of the leadership of Iraq." - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, MSNBC Interview.

January 22, 2003 - "What is unique about Iraq compared to, I would argue, any other country in the world, in this juncture, is the exhaustion of diplomacy thus far, and, No. 2, this intersection of weapons of mass destruction." - Bill Frist, NewsHour Interview

March 16, 2003 - "Getting rid of Saddam Hussein's regime is our best inoculation. Destroying once and for all his weapons of disease and death is a vaccination for the world." - Bill Frist, Washington Post op-ed

March 20, 2003 - The United States . . . is now at war "so we will not ever see" what terrorists could do "if supplied with weapons of mass destruction by Saddam Hussein." - Bill Frist, Senate Debate

March 31, 2003 - "We simply cannot live in fear of a ruthless dictator, aggressor and terrorist such as Saddam Hussein, who possesses the world’s most deadly weapons." - Bill Frist, Speech to American Israel Political Action Committee

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http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/06/26_wmd.html

Stop the presses!!!! "The most promising find, yet, in the hunt for WMDs has been located", according to Meg Alexander of NBC's Oklahoma City affiliate, KFOR. An Iraqi scientist has shown our guys that he has items buried in his yard... They found a large stash of castor beans, which according to Meg can be used to produce the toxin, ricin. Meg will assume that is what it positively will be used for because she intends to keep to the Bush program of scaring the daylights out of everyone in the USA... If they found a ton of peaches, she and the Bush administration would never assume they were making jam and just broadcast that they were using the seeds to make arsenic.

...It took me about ten minutes to find out that castor beans can be used to make a medicine that is used to induce milk production in new mothers. It is also used in paints and varnishes... Castor beans are used in the making of high performance motor oil... My suggestion would be for us to seize that load of castor beans and turn it into the most practical use for the US and channel 4 and that would be castor oil.

...The most promising proof, so far, to justify the killing of nearly 200 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis is materials that have been buried since 1991 and enough castor beans to give relief to Bush, the Administration, the GOP, the news media and Meg Alexander... Castor oil, the antidote to Weapons of Mass Constipation.

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an open letter to george w. bush from michael moore

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Do you really think we are as dumb as we look? I know our fascination with "American Idol" and Scott Peterson may make us Americans look a little light in the head, but when it comes to lying to us to lead us into war, we really do demand a bit more of an EFFORT and a FOLLOW-THROUGH.

You see, George, it's not the lying and the doctoring of intelligence that has me all upset. It's that you've had control of Iraq for over two months now -- and you couldn't even find the time to plant just a few nukes or vats of nerve gas and at least make it LOOK like you weren't lying to us.

You see, by not faking some evidence of weapons of mass destruction, it shows that you thought no one would mind if it turned out you made everything up... Your blatant refusal to back up your verbal deception, with the kind of fake evidence we have become used, to is a slap in our collective American face. It's as if you are saying, "These Americans are so damn apathetic and lazy, we won't have to produce any weapons to back up our claims!"

If you had just dug a few silo holes in the last month outside Tikrit, or spread some anthrax around those Winnebagos near Basra, or "discovered" some plutonium with that stash of home movies of Uday Hussein feeding his tigers, then it would have said to us that you thought we might revolt if you were caught in a lie. It would have shown us some *respect*.

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http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1616&dept_id=160079&newsid=8666215&PAG=461&rfi=9

Weapons of mass destruction were quietly found in Iraq earlier this month. For reasons that will be revealed in this column, the Bush Administration has been reluctant to promote the discovery of a very large number of offensive missiles. The find was reported in the "Periscope" section of the June 9th 2003 issue of Newsweek in a short article titled, "Return to Sender" [read it at http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/920530.asp].

...These WMD missiles were legally sold to Saddam by an irresponsible Western government seeking profit and influence... Bush Republicans stirring up hatred for our French and German allies for opposing the Iraq Invasion predicted that those countries would be found to be suppliers to Saddam's WMD programs. Neither sold the missiles, nor did China or Russia. They were sold to Saddam by the United States of America during the Reagan-Bush Administration.

We all know the Reagan-Bush Administration supplied missiles illegally to the mullahs of Iran during the Iran-Contra Affair. It now looks like this was not the only WMD export to rogue nations... The current Bush Administration has restricted public access to the official papers of the Reagan-Bush Administration by executive order... Why? What crimes or mistakes are being covered up? Are we doomed to repeat them?

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http://www.demog.berkeley.edu/~gabriel/weblog/2003_06_01_archive.html#105667609307123469

[New York Times 'reporter'] Judy Miller, commencement speech at Barnard College in May: "Journalists need to draw conclusions about whether objectivity was compromised during the war."

Washington Post, June 24: One military officer... says that Miller sometimes "intimidated" Army soldiers by invoking Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld or Undersecretary Douglas Feith.... "Essentially, she threatened them," the officer said, describing the threat as that "she would publish a negative story." An Army officer, who regarded Miller's presence as "detrimental," said: "Judith was always issuing threats of either going to the New York Times or to the secretary of defense. There was nothing veiled about that threat."

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/26/opinion/26SAFI.html?pagewanted=print&position=

Over the protests of 750,000 viewers and readers, three appointees to the Federal Communications Commission last month voted to permit the takeover of America's local press, television and radio by a handful of mega-corporations... [But] the Senate Commerce Committee said no.

A bill put forward by Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, president pro tem of the Senate and defender of local control, would reinstate the limit of 35 percent of market penetration by any one company. A Democratic amendment reasserted the limitation on "cross-ownership" by stations and newspapers. The rollback bill, with bipartisan support, is likely to pass the full Senate this summer.

...No thanks go to the biggest media, where CBS's "60 Minutes," NBC's "Dateline" and ABC's "20/20" found the rip-off of the public interest by their parent companies too hot to handle.

...Media moguls profess not to worry about the Senate's threatened rollback because they think they own Billy Tauzin, chairman of the relevant committee in the House. But Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina, has introduced a rollback bill similar to Stevens's in the Senate, and already has a majority of co-sponsors on Tauzin's committee. An old G.O.P. hand tells me Tauzin has "no interest" in stopping media mergers anywhere, but "always leaves himself wiggle room if there's heat from home." No heat is coming from the White House, where Karl Rove has not awakened to this "sleeper issue."

Burr should be of considerable interest to the G.O.P., however. He will be the challenger to Senator John Edwards next year unless Edwards resigns to run for president. National exposure as the congressman who stopped the power grab would help Burr pick up a Senate seat for the G.O.P., central to Bush hopes for a successful second term. That prospect should get White House attention.

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about the electoral theme-song issue

http://www.msnbc.com/news/931308.asp?0cl=c1

June 25 — Selling a candidate is a lot like selling a product. So I called Lance Jensen, creative director at the Boston ad firm Modernista! He’s the guy behind those dancing Gap ads. Most of the candidates’s songs that I ran by him fell flat. Sen. Joe Lieberman’s “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge, he dismissed as “tired.” He dinged Sen. John Kerry’s two choices, “No Surrender” by Bruce Springsteen and “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty, as fickle. “You’ve got to pick one and keep your fingers crossed,” Jensen explained. Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best”—picked at first by both Rep. Dick Gephardt and Sen. Bob Graham—did nothing for him, either. “[These songs] have “no ‘call to action,’ as we say in advertising parlance,” Jensen said. Gov. Howard Dean came closer with Elvis Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation,” but it’s full of sexual innuendo. Jensen thinks the best song so far is Rev. Al Sharpton’s “Stand Up For Your Rights” by Bob Marley. “He trumped everyone."

...Perhaps the ad exec is betraying his political convictions in his musical choices. He suggested that Bush should try Pink Floyd’s “Money” for his 2004 campaign theme song.

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we're in the money

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/26/business/26TAX.html

The 400 wealthiest taxpayers accounted for more than 1 percent of all the income in the United States in the year 2000, more than double their share just eight years earlier, according to new data from the Internal Revenue Service. But their tax burden plummeted over the period.

The data, in a report that the I.R.S. released last night, shows that the average income of the 400 wealthiest taxpayers was almost $174,000,000.00 in 2000.

That was nearly quadruple the $46,800,000.00 average in 1992.

The minimum income to qualify for the list was $86,800,000.00 in 2000, more than triple the minimum income of $24,400,000.00 of the 400 wealthiest taxpayers in 1992.

...In 2000, the top 400 on average paid 22.3 percent of their income in federal income tax, down from 26.4 percent in 1992 and a peak of 29.9 percent in 1995.

...The rate actually paid by the top 400 in 2000 was about the same as that paid by a single person making $123,000.00 or a married couple with two children earning $226,000.00, according to Citizens for Tax Justice, a labor-backed group whose calculations are respected by a broad spectrum of tax experts. The group favors higher taxes on the wealthy.

...A second report that the I.R.S. will make public today shows that the number of Americans with high incomes who pay no taxes anywhere in the world has reached a record. In 2000, there were 2,022 Americans with incomes of more than $200,000.00 who paid no income tax anywhere in the world, up from just 37 in 1977, when the report was first issued.

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no, we're in the shit

http://www.dallasfed.org/htm/research/hot/bd0503.html

Short-term interest rates are as close to zero as they’ve been at any time since 1958. Any further rate reduction will make life difficult for banks and money market funds, which will either have to start paying out less than a dollar for each dollar invested, or to begin charging explicit management fees.

...Policymakers can find themselves in serious trouble if they come up against the zero interest rate bound during a period of falling prices... because what ultimately matters to households and firms is the real cost of borrowing—what economists call the real interest rate. The real interest rate is the difference between the market, or “nominal,” interest rate and the rate of inflation. It is the prospect of a low real interest rate that makes current consumption and investment spending attractive. The trouble is, even a zero nominal interest rate can produce an expected real interest rate that is too high if people expect [prices to keep falling].

...The U.S. Great Depression is the textbook example of what can go wrong if policymakers are slow to respond to a deteriorating economy and falling inflation... The Federal Reserve cut the short-term nominal interest rate from 5 percent in 1929 to 0.5 percent in late 1932. However, inflation fell even faster. Consequently, the real interest rate... increased, rising from 3.5 percent in the spring of 1929 to a peak of 15 percent in late 1931 and early 1932.

As a result, industrial output fell by a whopping 50 percent relative to trend. Recovery didn’t begin until 1933, when the Roosevelt administration suspended gold payments and allowed the dollar to depreciate. Inflation rose well above the nominal interest rate, turning the real interest rate sharply negative.

Japan in the 1990s provides a more recent example... Like the Depression-era Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan cut short-term nominal interest rates in response to a weak economy... The real interest rate fell from 5 percent in late 1990, to 3 percent in 1993, to 1 percent or less in 1995, 1996 and 1997. Industrial output, which had nosedived in the early 90s, began to recover in 1996. But then the Asian economic crisis hit. Conventional monetary policy was powerless to respond, and Japan remains mired in depression to this day.

...Recent declines in industrial output have raised concerns that the U.S. economy may be stalling out. With the nominal interest rate so close to zero that conventional open-market operations are of doubtful effectiveness, what policy options are available to the Fed, should further stimulus be required? [If you study economics, the rest of this article will make sense to you - mrs.h]

[footnote: "The year-to-year change in private payrolls has been negative for 22 straight months—the longest uninterrupted stretch of job losses since 1944–6."]

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this message brought to you by affirmative action [i.e., my retired, professional-class parents paid for this computer]

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0625-02.htm

How have I gained by being white? ...I tend to see my success as the result of my own hard work and abilities. My retirement accounts and the down-payment on my house were saved dollar-by-dollar out of my paychecks... Couldn’t someone of any race have done the same?

...I left college with no student loans. Why was my father able to pay for my college education? As a World War II-era veteran, he went to graduate school on the GI Bill and got a subsidized mortgage from the Veterans Administration, benefits from which most veterans of color were excluded. As a homeowner, he got the mortgage interest deduction, a tax break unavailable to the majority of people of color who were renters.

...My grandparents had Social Security benefits when they reached age 65 in the 1960s, relieving my father from the responsibility of supporting his parents. Since agricultural and domestic workers were excluded from the original Social Security law passed in 1935, most people of color in my grandparents’ generation put little or nothing into the Social Security system, and so got little or nothing at retirement. People of color my father's age were more likely to be supporting their parents and so less able to pay for their children’s college.

...White people can be proud of our grandparents’, our parents’, and our own hard work, and still recognize that hard work is only one ingredient in gaining assets. Economic development requires government infrastructure of the kinds provided to white people throughout U.S. history... We white people have a responsibility to speak up for widening the circle of government support to include all Americans.

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http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=15222

Last week, the House Education and the Workforce Committee passed "The School Readiness Act of 2003," H.R. 2210. If a Republican-sponsored provision in the bill -- which allows religious organizations receiving government funds to provide Head Start services to discriminate in their hiring practices -- is retained in the final version, thousands of Head Start workers could lose their jobs. In addition, hundreds of thousands of parent volunteers who serve as teachers' aides and chaperones could also be displaced.

...[Also,] In early May, the $4 billion Workforce Reinvestment and Adult Education Act -- passed by the full House on a party-line 220-204 vote -- included a provision allowing faith-based organizations receiving government grants to sidestep civil rights laws. This legislation "allows religious organizations involved in federal job training programs to discriminate according to religion when hiring staff for these taxpayer-funded services" for the first time, the American Civil Liberties Union pointed out in an early April Action Alert titled "Stop Congress from Rolling Back Key Civil Rights Protections." [This bill is still pending in the senate --mrs.h]

...The Head Start program was created in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty. The program "currently serves about 1 million poor children a year with a comprehensive approach that includes early childhood education, health, nutrition and parental involvement," writes Desda Moss in GovExec.com. Moss adds that "only about half of the children eligible for the program" are currently being served.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43461-2003Jun27.html

If a missionary group supported by the Bush administration gets its way, Montgomery County elementary school teachers could soon be forced to distribute fliers soliciting student participation in weekly meetings "to hear Bible stories, play games, sing songs, and memorize Scripture." A case now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is the latest test of how open public schools must be to religious groups and how far schools must go to accommodate them.

...The case arises out of the efforts of the Child Evangelism Fellowship, a national organization set up to bring the Gospel to children, to use school facilities for its Good News Clubs... The county rightly balks at sending home an announcement of an event that is not merely conducted by a religious organization but is fundamentally proselytical in nature.

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save-americorps campaign!

http://www.saveamericorps.org/

AmeriCorps has been cut 57%.

...Young people seeking to serve their country through AmeriCorps will decrease from 67,000 this year to 28,000 next year... AmeriCorps members - working for established programs that have proven effective - mentor, tutor and teach children, build affordable housing, restore parks and green spaces, provide public safety training, and build vital community partnerships between schools, businesses, and government... AmeriCorps members volunteer full-time and receive a Public Service Scholarship after completing their service.

[see this site for petition to bush admin. for emergency funding: http://www.petitiononline.com/mr5qv367/petition.html]

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not a satire

http://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/index.htm

"There are people who hurt in America, people who wonder whether or not the American Dream is meant for them, people who hear the word entrepreneurship and are not sure what the heck that means... We have a responsibility as Americans to put our arms around somebody who hurts. And each of us can make a difference." --George W. Bush

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